About 1.066 million Steadfast shares will be sold on market over the next 10 days after the company set up a facility for brokers to sell stock they acquired during its listing last year.

The holders of 172.5 million shares issued in the initial public offer were prevented from selling until today, raising fears millions of shares could be dumped onto the market this week.

Steadfast devised an orderly sale by setting up a facility for stockbrokers JP Morgan and Macquarie to sell the escrow shares without charging brokerage fees.

If more than $20 million of shares were offered for sale, the stockbrokers would offer them through a bookbuild, enabling institutional investors to buy large stakes.

However, since only about $1.67 million of stock has been released, the shares will be fed into the market over the coming days.

Steadfast MD and CEO Robert Kelly has welcomed the sign of continuing shareholder support.

“We are pleased with the low level of participation in the escrow sale facility, which reaffirms our brokers’ commitment to the Steadfast group and its future success,” he said.

Steadfast’s shares opened at $1.575 this morning after closing at $1.565 on Friday.

The shares jumped from about $1.35 last week after the announcement of Steadfast’s profit and the escrow facility.